began to open the cupboards, to count the piles of linen,
the pocket-handkerchiefs, and socks. She changed the arrangement to
place them in more harmonious order, more pleasing to her housekeeper's
eye; and when she had put everything to her mind, laying out the towels,
the shirts, and the drawers on their several shelves and dividing all
the linen into three principal classes, body-linen, household-linen, and
table-linen, she drew back and contemplated the results, and called out:

"Come here, Jean, and see how nice it looks."

He went and admired it to please her.

On a sudden, when he had sat down again, she came softly up behind his
arm-chair, and putting her right arm round his neck she kissed him,
while she laid on the chimney-shelf a small packet wrapped in white
paper which she held in the other hand.

"What is that?" he asked. Then, as she made no reply, he understood,
recognising the shape of the frame.

"Give it me!" he said.

She pretended not to hear him, and went back to the linen cupboards. He
got up hastily, took the melancholy relic, and going across the room,
put it in the drawer of his writing-table, which he locked and double
locked. She wiped away a tear with the tip of her finger, and said in a
rather quavering voice: "Now I am going to see whether your new
servant keeps the kitchen in good order. As she is out I can look into
everything and make sure."

CHAPTER IX

Letters of recommendation from Professors Mas-Roussel, Remusot, Flache,
and Borriquel, written in the most flattering terms with regard to Dr.
Pierre Roland, their pupil, had been submitted by M. Marchand to the
directors of the Transatlantic Shipping Co., seconded by M. Poulin,
judge of the Chamber of Commerce, M. Lenient, a great ship-owner, and
Mr. Marival, deputy to the Mayor of Havre, and a particular friend of
Captain Beausires's. It proved that no medical officer had yet been
appointed to the Lorraine, and Pierre was lucky enough to be nominated
within a few days.

The letter announcing it was handed to him one morning by Josephine,
just as he was dressed. His first feeling was that of a man condemned
to death who is told that his sentence is commuted; he had an immediate
sense of relief at the thought of his early departure and of the
peaceful life on board, cradled by the rolling waves, always wandering,
always moving. His life under his father's roof was now that of a
stranger, silent and reserved. Ever since t